Aphex Twin Hoards Six New Albums

November 1, 2010 — keiiex

Pitchfork Media is reporting that IDM/glitch/electronica virtuoso Richard D. James (or Aphex Twin, AFX, Blue Calx, etc.) has six albums of materialthat for some reason are just sitting around, not getting released since 2001. James says:

“I’ve got six completed. Two are very non-commercial, abstract, modular-synthesis, field recordings– those I finished four years ago. Another one is Melodies From Mars, which I redid about three years ago. There’s one of stuff I won’t go into, a comp of old tracks which is never really finished and always changing, and then one I’m working on now. There are also loads of tracks which don’t belong anywhere.”

This is flabbergasting news! Being a dork always and forever, I’ll admit that Aphex Twin has enjoyed the role of “architect” in defining my musical taste. Despite five years without any new material (James’ last release was the excellent Chosen Lords as APX in 2006), I would point out that the current proliferation of electronica music stems from James’ archetypal catalog of computer-generated sound.

You want evidence? Watch Kanye West’s epic music video (seemingly a visual illustration of his entire new album). He is definitely sampling “Avril 14th” (off James’ 2001 release Drukqs) around the 25-minute mark.

Come on, Richard D. James. You are going to need to release some of this material so that, in ten years, the best hip-hop producers can incorporate it into their sampling repertoire.